Esperon: Balikatan soon to include other allied countries

CLARKFIELD, Pampanga – The yearly joint RP-US military exercises dubbed as Balikatan exercises is likely to be expanded to include troops from other allied countries in the future. This was disclosed Monday by Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr, who said the multilateral Balikatan exercises is possible through the signing of status of forces agreement with other nations. “We hope that in the future, Balikatan can evolve into a multi-lateral exercise. There advantages into going multi-lateral. This remains, for the meantime, primarily bilateral because this is part of the Mutual Defense Treaty," Esperon said. “Once we are able to sign the status of visiting forces agreement with other countries, then that will pave the way for multi-lateral exercises," Esperon added. Esperon was in Clarkfield Monday for the closing ceremonies for this year’s Balikatan exercises. The Balikatan exercise, which includes a series of military training and humanitarian activities, is being conducted for the past decades. This year’s Balikatan, involving at least 6,000 US and 2,000 Filipino troops, started Feb. 18. A Status of Visiting Forces Agreement with Australia has been forged by the Department of National Defense last year. The agreement, which legalizes military exercises between RP and Australian forces, will be binding upon concurrence by the Senate, which is still deliberating on it. Defense officials are also in the process of discussing possible status of forces agreement with other countries, among them Brunei and Singapore. “When we go multilateral, naturally that will have to be agreed upon by all the participants. But in the future, I would imagine that it would still be the United States and the Philippines that will determine most of that because we are the primary participants here," Esperon said. The military chief added that so far there is no agreement that will cover the possible multilateral Balikatan. “But the idea of observers has long been espoused, and it is only now that we had this number of observers. It something that is evolving," he said. US and Filipino officials traditionally invite other countries to witness the Balikatan exercise. This year’s foreign observers were Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei. - GMANews.TV